News Anchor Nina Harrelson Responds to Viewer Who Said She Looks "Mighty Big" on TV

In this week's segment of "I Didn't Ask You to Comment On My Body," a news anchor in Memphis, TN, is clapping back after a troll in the wild told her she looks "mighty big."

On Sunday, Nina Harrelson was out on assignment when an elderly man called her name, and she waved to him thinking he was just being friendly. Instead, the man called out, "You look mighty big on TV!” the anchor told Today Style.

“I would be lying if I said it didn’t sting," Harrelson said. "There are so many women in my industry who look like Victoria's Secret supermodels. It can be tough to be a normal-sized woman."

Harrelson shared her story on Twitter, and it quickly went viral, attracting almost 110,000 likes and 8,000 retweets. "FYI - journalists are not models... And I can assure you, none of us want to hear your opinions on our bodies. WE ARE NOT YOUR EYE CANDY," she wrote alongside a photo of her at the anchor desk of the WREG news station.

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"You look mighty big on TV!"

That's what a complete stranger just said to me.

FYI - journalists are not models... And I can assure you, none of us want to hear your opinions on our bodies.

"Luckily, after nearly nine years in this business, I have a very thick skin. But I feel sorry for the young women breaking into news who will have to deal with that kind of criticism, which their male colleagues will almost certainly never face," she wrote in a followup tweet.

Harrelson elaborated to Today Style about the judgmental comments she's faced throughout her nine years as a news anchor. “I got a handwritten note from someone telling me I look like a man,” she said. “And then that person sent a separate letter to the production staff telling them not to do close-ups of me because I’m so ugly.”

“We already have enough consultants who come in and tell us how we should dress,” Harrelson continued. “We don’t need it from complete strangers.”

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Luckily, after this latest incident, Harrelson received a ton of support from friends and fans on Twitter. "This sort of abuse is all too frequent, and as a talented journalist, you shouldn't have to receive it," wrote fellow journalist Alison Comyn. "I'm sure you're able to ignore it, but it can still get to everyone at times, so thank you for calling him out. I took the time to report his tweets as harassment."

Harrelson encountered some backlash for her comments on size, but she said that wasn't her goal. "And my intention wasn’t to imply there’s anything wrong with being 'big'—I’m just pointing out that it’s asinine how people feel they have a right to comment on women’s bodies just because they can," she tweeted. "It’s entirely possible to think something and not say it."

She also unapologetically wrote to her Facebook page that she's "happy to represent women of all shapes and sizes—whether you’re in the public eye or not."

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Nicol NataleAssistant EditorCurrently an assistant editor at Prevention.com, Nicol is a Manhattan-based journalist who specializes in health, wellness, beauty, fashion, business, and lifestyle.

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